German Patent Application No. 196 36 477 has already described a vehicle antenna device which includes a conducting structure acting as an antenna in a fender made of a nonconducting material and separated from the interior of the vehicle by a body panel.
The vehicle antenna device according to the present invention has the advantage over the related art that a shielding wall made of an electrically conductive material is provided, is electrically conductively connected to the body panel, and is situated between a wheel bearing and the electrically conducting structure. Consequently, electrostatic discharges from the wheel bearing do not cause interference in the antenna signal received by the structure. The structure is effectively shielded by this shielding wall from such electrostatic discharges from the wheel bearing.
It is especially advantageous that the shielding wall is formed by a splash guard wall situated above the wheel assigned to the wheel bearing, the electrically conducting structure being situated on the side of the splash guard wall facing away from the wheel and insulated from it electrically. In this way, a splash guard wall, which is provided anyway to protect the fender from weathering influences, may also be used at the same time to shield the structure due to the metallic design, which is electrically conducting, so that no additional material or production complexity is required for shielding the structure and thus no additional costs are incurred.
Another advantage is that the splash guard wall develops into an external, electrically conductive fender part which at least partially covers the wheel, and on its side facing the body panel the fender is made of an electrically nonconducting material, and above the splash guard wall and the outer fender part, it forms a cavity in which the structure is situated. This improves the shielding of the structure, because the shielding wall is continued by the external fender part, so that the external fender part also contributes toward shielding of the structure from electrostatic discharges of the wheel bearing.